


Eulog(ies)

by alliwantforchristmasisfanfictions



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben is alive, F/M, Luther Hargreeves Has a Human Body, M/M, No Apocalypse (Umbrella Academy), Number Five | The Boy-centric, Protective Siblings, Vanya never wrote the book
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:35:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25314688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alliwantforchristmasisfanfictions/pseuds/alliwantforchristmasisfanfictions
Summary: AU where the siblings raised Five together, and today they're attending their youngest brother's funeral.Stories from the last year of Five’s life (He was actually 17 and in senior year).
Relationships: Dave & Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy), Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy)/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 106





	1. Luther & the airport

**Author's Note:**

> Highly inspired in my first work (Little did they know). If you need more info, you can go check it out.
> 
> The structure will always be the same : 
> 
> \- Eulogy part 1 (memories of Five's childhood)  
> \- A memory of 2018-2019  
> \- Eulogy part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luther and Five wonder in the airport waiting for Allison and Claire who are moving into the city. - This chapter explains what Five’s normal life looks like.

**August 25th, 2018**

Five Hargreeves died on the night of July 17th of 2019, at seventeen years old.

A week later, his six older siblings were sitting in the front row of the church, staring at the open casket showing the lifeless body of their baby brother...

“Five’s siblings will say a couple of words, now.” The reverent finished and stepped out of the spotlight, meaning it was time for them to speak.

Luther was the first one to go, he took it as responsibility seeing as he was ‘the oldest’. He clumsily got up and walked towards the microphone, he was wearing his best suit and looked red from the heat.

After clearing his throat loudly and he started “So um, I don’t know what I’m supposed to say, I don’t know what words to use... The only other funeral I’ve attended was my father’s, and that was also the day I met Five. I didn’t even know I had a little brother until the morning he showed up to the empty memorial service wearing a suit too big for him, he sat right beside me and greeted me like an old man.”

Luther chuckled with sparkling tears on the edge of his eyes and the mood of the room felt slightly lighter. He played with the little notes he had written a couple of hours earlier when he couldn't sleep, his hands were shaking and his forehead was full of sweat.

He continued with a shakier voice “A couple of days after that funeral, I was taking Five to the Zoo after watching ‘Transformers’ three times in a row all morning. Yet, babysitting Five was by far the highlight of my week back then. He showed up when I was at my lowest, and through the years he would always find a way to put a smile on my face simply with reading me a fairytale, telling me a bad joke he learned a school or showing off his terrible taste in music. Five was an incredibly important part of my life, and he was so special in so many ways..”

**August 26th, 2018**

Five and Luther were bored out of their minds, walking in circles in the airport waiting for Allison and Claire to arrive from LA.

“I’m bored”

“I know Five, you’ve said that seven times.”

“Yeah, because I’m bored”

“Eight times.”

Luther had just ended his engagement with the only woman he had ever dated, but they never really loved each other. His siblings had helped him move out and Five had spent most of the summer with him trying to cheer him up and getting him over his ex, or as Five referred to her "The bitchy, crazy, ugly, gold digger."

On the other side of the country, Allison had recently gotten well-deserved custody of her nine-years-old daughter, and right away they decided to start a fresh new life away from their demons. 

They decided to move in with Luther into his new three-bedroom apartment in a friendly neighborhood, it was a great place to raise Claire, it was pretty close to Luther's present job as a firefighter and close enough Allison's new job as the protagonist role in a multi-million-dollar movie. It was the perfect plan.

Which is why the girls packed their bags and were now in a late flight to the east coast, where the boys waited impatiently.

“So the weather…” Luther asked halfway through the line in front of McDonald’s for a second cup of coffee.

“No Luther, no.” small talk was a common enemy for both boys.

“Okay,” Luther said awkwardly before looking at his watch pointing midnight, he would never say this out loud but but he didn’t want Five to go back to school. This past summer, the kid had been the only one keeping him from a break down, keeping him sane and interested in life. He was the one who came up with the idea of making Allison and Claire move with Luther, deep down he was also afraid of leaving Luther. “Are you excited about Monday, buddy?”

“Don’t call me ‘buddy’, Luther”

“Right” Luther found the situation very funny; Five had slept in Luther's bed more than once until middle school, the kid never locked the bathroom door, and he always overshared private information, but he was still embarrassed of little nicknames and public hugs. “Anyways, how are you feeling about your first day of school?”

“Not great” Five shrugged thinking of a better answer to follow up. “You know, high school isn’t as fun as Allison’s old movies makes it . It’s actually not fun at all.”

Luther and his siblings never went to a real school, in fact, they were more excited for Five’s school experiences than the id himself. “It can’t be that bad, right?”

“It’s really just a place where you go to get bossed around and sit for seven hours on a dirty desk to listen to depressed adults talk about subjects that they are sick of teaching.” Five answered robotically as he had already planned that answer years ago.

Luther didn’t really know how to react so he just quickly said the first thing that came to mind “At least you get good grades”

“Yeah, after studying for entire weekends and sleepless nights reading to turn assignments in on time” Five answered bitterly with his usual angry tone.

“Oh” Luther just nodded and the conversation faded out, if both men had something in common it was their inability to maintain a normal conversation for over five minutes.

A few more minutes went by and Luther tried to guess if it was a good idea to let Five get yet a third cup of caffeine. “Why are they so late?”

When Allison and Claire finally got to the waiting area where the two were waiting, it took Five less than a second to spot them and space jump to their side “HEY YOU’RE HERE!”

The kid had an excited smile in his face that only appeared once or twice a year. He opened his arms and Claire dropped her ‘Hello Kitty’ bag to wrap her tiny hands around him “FIVE!”

The moment was adorable, and after all the hugs and the kisses, they were ready to get home. Luther picked up all their bags with one hand, and Claire hopped on Five's back and he started space jumping everywhere to make her burst with laughter. They really didn’t mind about their superpowers at this point. “I’m glad you guys are finally here”

“I’m glad we’re here too, this is going to be great. Thank you so much, Luther.” Allison seemed exhausted, but her smile was still radiant enough foe=r the whole airport to notice..

“No need to thank me, this is going to be fun,” The man said certain of himself, projecting how smooth the next year could go “Although you should thank Five, he spent his last week of vacation decorating Claire’s room and making me buy a bunch of stuff to make you feel like at home, he’s a real diva when it comes to shopping.”

Allison chuckled agreeing, seeing her little brother hold her daughter’s small hand and showing her the way out of the airport “Believe me, I know what you're talking about, around this time every year I used to take him shopping for supplies and back-to-school outfits. We would always end up pissing each other off real quick.”

They laughed it off and walked to the parking, both kids fell asleep the second they got into the car. The rest of the night was spent between the two adults chatting, catching up, and laughing at their other siblings.

The next day, on Sunday morning, the family prepared a brunch to properly welcome Allison and Claire. Everyone bought some food, house gifts for Allison, and cute toys for Claire, and they sat together in the living room to catch up like a normal family. None of them could remember the last time they spent a nice day altogether with no drama, no fighting, no crying, just cozy happy family time. They were all happy.

The 'welcome brunch' for the girls ended pretty late and everyone headed home. Five spent the night alone in Vanya's while she went out to perform in a small event. Vanya was the first chair in an orchestra known all around the country, she had practices every morning, she taught violin to privileged little kids every afternoon, and performed solo shows every week. That's why Five spent a lot of his school nights in her place, it was often empty, peaceful, and quite aesthetic.

Although, he spent most school nights with Klaus and Ben because their place was way closer to his school. Not to mention, Ben was his designated driver every morning because he worked at the school as an English teacher, and he loved every aspect of it. Five weirdly enjoyed having his brother around, however, this year however was somewhat different because for the first time he was actually in Ben’s class. _Calling your own brother Mr. Hargreeves wasn’t so bad, was it?_

Klaus had been thinking of moving in with the sweet man he had been dating for almost three years. His name was Dave and he was a policeman, they met thanks to Diego and were dumbly in love. Klaus spent half of his weeks at Dave's, the only reason he hadn't completely moved out was because he didn’t want to abandon his brothers, and because he felt lonely while Dave worked and while he worked from home as an artist.

Fridays were always his and Diego’s special day: he would pick Five after school and roll off to some exciting activities, but he would avoid having Five in his place at all coast. Five was the only person for who Diego would ever take off early at work or reschedule a date, he loved the kid.

And after that week, Five started spending his weekends with his niece, Luther, and Allison. Whenever they were together they acted like a perfect little pretend family : taking walks in the park, watching Disney movies all night, making breakfast together, etc.

“BZZ BZZZ” Five was already in bed looking at the ceiling when shaken away from his phone started buzzing with new messages.

**Allison**  
_“Hey grandpa, I really had fun today, I'm so glad i get to see you more often now._. **_–21:53_**

** Allison **  
_I wanted to wish you the best for your last year of high school. I love you so much, sleep tight!” **–21:56**_

**Klaus)=**   
_“GOOD LUCK FOR TOMORROW SWEET FACE!” **– 22:04**_

** Ben **  
_“Can’t wait to see you in class tomorrow ;) ” **\- 22:16**_

**Diego**  
“ _Hey, champ, break a leg tomorrow! By the way, would you like to go hiking this Friday?” **\- 22:32**_

 **Vanya**  
_“Hey Five, I just wanted to appologze for not being there, again, sorry. There’s dinner in the fridge, hope you like it. I’ll be home to wake you up tomorrow morning, big day! Good night”_ _**– 22:47**_

Five would be lying f he said those messages didn’t warm his heart, he was only smiling so big cause he was alone…. And cause he loved his dumbass siblings.

 _“BZZ BZZZ”_ a sixth notifications arrived and the boy opened it right away.

**Luther**   
_“Hey champ, I hope high school isn’t that bad tomorrow. If it helps, I think Allison's old high school movies were awful. Thank you for this summer, it meant a lot to me.” **\- 22:51**_

Five chuckled, heated his leftover pasta the microwave, ate in front of the TV playing ‘Queer Eye’ (recommended by Klaus), took a hot shower (discouraged by Diego)’ and went to sleep with the biggest grin on his soft face.

“Yeah, we’re so weird” man, he loved his family.

**Funeral- August 1st, 2019**

“I won’t lie, Five was not an easy kid” Luther continued “He was a little tornado from the day I met him, he cut my patience short and knew exactly how to make my head explode, but he was still the greatest kid I’ve ever met. The last day I spent with him, he shut the door in my face after screaming my ears off, and yet all I could think about was how proud I was of everything he had achieved. Of course, Five was too prideful to apologize but he ended up joining me in the living room later and we watched ‘Shazam’ together.”

Luther’s brothers were resisting their urges to cringe at his horrible eulogy, and Vanya was looking at him with a judging look. Most people sniffed whenever Luther used the past tense to talk about his recently deceased teenage brother.

Luther bit his lips and wondered if he should stop talking. Maybe? Definitely. “Anyways, uh… Thank you all for being here.” He ended it and practically ran back to his seat beside Allison.

Luther was the least sentimental sibling in their family, but it really didn’t mean that he was heartless. When he heard about his baby brother’s death, he was the only family member who didn’t immediately break into tears, even if he felt like his world fell apart, even if his heart physically hurt, even if he had never felt so hurt before… Luther did not cry.

Instead, he waited until everyone cried their eyes out, he waited an entire week, after all the funeral preparations were over, he waited until he was left alone filling a box with all of his brother’s belongings… and he finally let it out and cried for hours.


	2. Diego & the birthday gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego would do anything to see his little brother happy. Here’s to the last birthday gift Five ever got.

**At the Funeral- August 21st, 2019**

After Luther say back down, Diego took a deep breath and spontaneously got up to walk towards the stage. He grabbed the microphone and tried to ignore the dead body only a couple of feet away “Hello”

Everyone was staring up at him and all Diego could think of was the possibility of his stuttering coming back “Um, I wanted to say that... Five was... he was… I- he… uh”

_Why the hell was this so hard? Was it because even after thirteen years he still saw Five as an innocent, helpless four-years-old? Was it because he could perfectly remember the day he dropped his crying little brother off at kindergarten and spent an hour trying to detach him from his neck? Was it because he couldn’t stop thinking about all the times he took Five on road trips and heard him sing for hours in the back seat?_

Yeah, he couldn’t do this.

**September 31st, 2018**

It was Sunday night and Five was sitting alone on the couch of Klaus’s and Ben’s apartment, enjoying peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, homemade iced coffee, and a marathon of his guilty pleasure; anime.

Of course, he was home alone, both his brothers were out enjoying their Saturday nights. Klaus was at his boyfriend’s, Dave, and Ben was on a third date with a mysterious girl he refused to talk about.

Meanwhile, Five was happy to have some alone time. His family thought he was going to invite his friends over, steel drugs from Klaus, or downloading porn like most kids, but Five wasn’t like most kids. Instead, here he was entertained by 'little Asian drawings' like his siblings called it.

His tranquility got to an end when a knock on the door started him “Five, open up!”

It took a second for Five to guess who the voice belonged to “Diego? What are you doing here?”

“Just open the door, I need to talk to you” Diego sounded in a hurry, it was unusual to see Diego on a Sunday, normally the macho brother was always in bars getting drunk with his policeman buddies and hooking up with strangers at this time. 

Five slowly forced himself to get up and walk to the door, he opened it up and greeted Diego with a yawn “Hey”

“Jeez, how many trucks ran over you?” Diego joked looking up and down at his brother. The kid smelled like a dead rat, he had black bags under his wide-open red eyes, he was wearing the oldest sweatpants in his drawer barely long enough to cover his hairy ankles, and his shirt had a huge chocolate ice cream stain. “You’re disgusting, take a shower man”

Five wrinkled his nose and passed his hair through his greasy dark, normally he had a snarky comment prepared but he was way too stale to try “Maybe later”

“No, I’m serious, we’re going out” Diego invited himself inside and turned off the TV, he pointed at the bathroom down the hall and strongly repeated “Take a shower, shave, and change, now. ”

“Out? Why? Where? It’s late you know. I have school tomorrow.” Five was teleported straight back to the couch and showed no interest in the answers to his questions.

“Five, it’s not even eight pm.” Diego glared at Five who was ignoring him. The kid sat back on the couch, reached the remaining half of his marshmallow and peanut butter sandwich with one hand, and shamelessly scratched butt with the other.

“Well I don’t have any intention to get out of this living room, so good night Diego” Five smiled and got a comfortable.

Diego stopped him, grabbed his wrist and frowned “It’s a weekend night, it's your birthday tomorrow, you’re young, you’re single, and you’re free. In conclusion, you are going to walk to that bathroom, clean yourself up, and come out with me, right now.”

Five actually felt somewhat threaten, Diego could be a scary man when he wanted to, he was a detective for a reason right. “Why?”

“Five, why are you so opposed to socializing, you’re handsome, smart, and you have five siblings willing to help you get any pretty girl you want,” Diego said in all seriousness and Five turned red. 

“Diego, you don’t understand, I just can’t. You’ve never seen me at school; I’m awkward, I’m clumsy, I don’t know about trends, and I’m unable to hold a conversation with anyone my age. I’m a joke”

Diego frowned harder, it was so weird to see him talk down about himself. Normally his ego was through the roof, but it did seem hard to keep your self-esteem up when you’re covered in cookie dust, wearing a Star Wars underwear and not getting invited to any party on your senior year.

The kid continued shyly “I’m not in any sports team, I’ve never been in a relationship, I’m always eating with Ben at lunch... everyone thinks of me as just the weird kid, nobody is really interested in hearing me talk about science or math, okay? I talk a big talk, but I really don’t have anything to impress”

Diego sighed, understanding his little brother a lot more. This conversation wasn’t exactly new, they had versions of this through the years; in kindergarten, the other kids never included him in their games, in third grade his soccer team voted to have him on the bench, in middle school the other kids in karate class pinned him down for being ‘a scrawny loser’, and just two years ago he came crying to Vanya because he had no friends at school. “I see kiddo, I see”

There was a moment of silence where Five tried to forget what his brother had just said by playing with the _Bob sponge_ slippers that Ben got him for Christmas. “So can I stay here?”

“Nope, because you do have a lot to impress,” Diego said confidently and sat beside his little brother "You're not just the weird nerd, okay? You're kindhearted, genuine, interesting, funny, talented at so many things, well-read, and anyone would be lucky to have you in their lives.”

Five just looked down at his slippers once more and tried to smile as a thank you.

Diego didn’t take silence as a response, he got up again, pointed at the door, and put on his serious expression “I still need you to get your ass up that couch. I won’t tell you again; go shower, get dressed and shave. You look like shaggy and that’s not a compliment. You have fifteen minutes!”

Five frowned like a little child but still listen, he spaced jumped to the bathroom leaving Diego smiling proudly in the living room, thinking about the memory of teaching Five how to shave: The boy had just turned fourteen and had a clear dark line under his nose, so his four brothers used the ‘boys nights out’ excuse to get him trapped in a bathroom where they messed with shaving cream and razors all afternoon.

Ah, the good times.

Fifteen minutes passed and Five looked like a brand new person: he was wearing the best cologne he owned, wearing newest the newest skinny jeans, and wearing an ironed bouton up shirt.

“Dude why are your jeans so tight?” Diego asked staring at the ripped jeans while they both stood side by side in the elevator.

“Have you seen my legs? I’m a noddle.” Five said looking down at his new white Nikes.

“Damn kid, you’re really putting yourself down today aren’t ya” Diego mumbled and the kid nodded.

Soon enough they were exiting the building and heading to the parking. Five stopped walking when he realized his brother’s blue vintage car was nowhere to find “Where even is your car?”

“I didn’t bring it.” He said breezily.

“What?” Five’s confused ace expression had always been one of the funniest things Diego had ever witnessed.

“Yeah, I left it at home.”

“Then how did you get here? You live across the city, it takes like four busses to get here. Oh, and if you think I’m walking in the snow with these shoes, you can forget it.”

“We’re not walking brother, we’re taking this” Diego reached into the pocket of his winter coat and took out a car key. Right beside them, a car light blinked and Diego leaned on it with a smile “You like it?”

“You got a new car?!” He raised his voice to a weird, girly, high pitched tone. He started analyzing the red electric car, a brand new ‘Telsa Model 3’, Five’s dream car. “Wow. I love this car, it’s amazing! Congrats dude”

“Well, I’m glad you like it because...” He said smoothly and tossed the keys in the air, Five used his powers to teleport them to his hand. His jaw dropped and Diego smirked “it’s all yours”

Five was usually the smart one in the family, and yet here he froze and hardly processing Diego’s last sentence. His heart pumped faster and it suddenly all felt like a dream “WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS?”

The whole scene was hilarious “Yep, Happy birthday little bastard.”

“Oh my god…” The kid had no words, he stared at the car with his green eyes wide open and his jaw dropped to the ground. “I can’t fucking believe it.”

“Language”

Five ignored him and went straight to the driving place, he looked at the inside with a smile going ear to ear and enjoyed every detail about it “I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT!”

Diego was trying hard not to remember, normally he just took Five to the movies but the last real birthday present that he gave to Five was a pack of a hundred ‘Pokémon’ cards so this was a pretty big step “I’m happy you like it, kiddo. Happy seventeenth birthday!”

Five got out of the car to hug Diego tighter than he had hugged anyone in years, the kid jumped in glee while screaming “THANK YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH! THIS IS THE BEST GIFT EVER”

Diego hugged him back, trying not to cry while realizing that Five was almost as tall as him, he would be taller than him before leaving for college- oh god. Five was going to be away in college only a year from now. Here come the tears.

“Can I try it?” He asked innocently with a shine in his big eyes

“Of course, it’s all yours” Diego let go and watched him walk away into the driver’s seat again, he quickly followed into the passenger’ seat “Just don’t crash it, it’s pretty expensive. Remember everything I thought about you?”

“Yeah, yeah” the car started and the rest of the night was all fun; loud music on the radio, going faster than he should and stopping for ice cream at midnight.

Diego had insisted to pay for his little brother’s driving lessons for the last year, and he took him to practice every single Friday night, he thought of all his siblings he should be the one to teach Five this. The kid treated it like a tressure and Diego would pay ten times the price to see Five smiles so big more often.

Diego didn't know it yet, but buying that car was the worst mistake Diego had ever made.

**At the Funeral- August 21st, 2019**

Thinking back about it made it all worst.

Time was going too fast, only ten days ago he was sitting on his with his brother planning a road trip to Disneyland. Now, he was standing a few feet away from his baby brother’s casket.

Looking at Five’s skinny body dressed in his best suit lying dead still was by far the worst pain he had ever felt.

_I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this._


	3. Allison & Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five gets wasted for the first time in a Halloween party. Allison is there to help him even tho she’s pissed.  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The structure will always be the same : 
> 
> \- Eulogy part 1 (memories of Five's childhood)  
> \- A memory of 2018-2019  
> \- Eulogy part 2

**At the Funeral- August 1st, 2019**

Diego was still on the stage, frozen and barely breathing. He hadn’t said much, he just grunted and stuttered a couple bone sense words.

After a few seconds, Allison decided to get up and walk to him to rescue her most hotheaded brother from embarrassment. “Diego?”

_Diego didn’t answer._

“Diego, are you going to talk?” she whispered.

_Diego didn’t move._

“Diego? Are you okay?”

_No, he was not fucking okay._

“Diego, sweetie, go back to your place okay?”

That’s when the brown-eyed man finally reacted and ran out of the room mumbling “Excuse me I can’t do this, sorry, I have to go…”

The room went quiet again, everyone trying to feel empathetic for the family lost. Ben and Vanya both looked at each other before getting up and following Diego outside. Klaus decided to stay put in his place, he didn't feel strong enough to help someone else when he could barely speak, he would just make it worst.

Allison couldn’t take another second of the pitiful silence, she picked up the microphone and begin her own eulogy “Hi”

Se had been handling this whole thing better than her brothers: she had taken her mind out of everything by monopolizing all the paperwork, hospital bills, and funeral arrangements. Now had come the time to face reality and stop leaving in shook, in denial ever, he was about to speak at her brother’s funeral.

“My siblings and I all had strange childhoods. None of us ever had a mother, and technically we never had a father, but we at least we had each other. Five came to our lives a lot later, and his childhood was a lot more different from ours, but the one similarity is that we were always there for him just like he was always there for us.”

She swallowed hard, her body wanted to shut down but she still continued “When he was four years old, Five became an orphan once again, so we didn't think twice before we took him under our care without. My brothers, my sister, and I did our best to raise him, we treated him like a son. It wasn't easy, we weren’t the best ‘pretend parents’, in fact, most days ended in disasters, but we would always do anything to make that little boy happy because we loved him so much. He returned his love in his own weird ways, he would always put his family first, he was understanding of the crazy situation, and not once did he seem ungrateful."

Allison bit her lips and wondered if she could really make it thought the end of her eulogy. _This is too damn hard_. "My divorce was one of the hardest things I've been through, and even though I am not proud of it, Five was my moral support during the entire thing. A couple of years ago, my ex-husband filled up for divorced and took my daughter from me, and it broke me. My little brother, who was only twelve at the time, took a plane alone for the first time and flew across the country to spend his entire summer in California with me. He spent weeks acting like a big brother to me, he comforted me after every breakdown, he sat with me during every court meeting, he followed me everywhere to make sure I didn't lose it, he made me marshmallow and peanut butter sandwiches to make sure I was eating enough, he was truly wonderful. I did not deserve a little brother like him."

“You know, moving here with my family was all Five's idea, and listening to him was the best decision I've ever made. Principally because it gave me the opportunity to spend time with brother before... well you know. I got to spend so much quality time with him, I had the privilege to get to know one of the best kids to walk this Earth. In the last few months, I learned a lot of things about him, like how he was a night person, he was terrified of spiders, and he speaks in his sleep. He will normally just talked nonsense about animals, food, or math, but sometimes he sounded upset like he was having a bad dream, so I would play with his hair, kiss his forehead and hug him warmly until he calmed down and started snorting again." She smiled up trying not to ruin her make up with her sorrowful tears.

Allison's voice broke and suddenly it all felt too _real_. Too _painful_. Five was _dead_.

Her little brother was dead. She was suffocating, her throat was closing, she could barely hold herself up, but none of that would bring Five back, ever. "I'm going to miss him so much."

**October 31st, 2018**

Halloween night, a dream for all teenagers in the country.

A nightmare their mothers.

This year, Allison following Claire around to trick-or-treat, and dragging Luther with her to not get too bored. She had bought three superhero matching costumes and they were now walking under the rain.

Meanwhile, Five was attending his first real high school party; alcohol, drugs, sex, and very loud music. The kid was surrender with bitchy cheerleaders, assholes from the football team, smelly junkies, and know-it-all geeks, it couldn’t be more stereotypical. Five thought he was supposed to dislike these sorts of events but after his seventh red cup of beer and his third can of Smirnoff, it all seemed way too fun.

It wasn’t as fun when he had to call Allison to pick him up after waking up in an unfamiliar house and he was too drunk to remember how he got there. He took the new iPhone that Allison had given him for his birthday and clumsily dialed her number, it only ringed twice before she picked up.”

“Hello? Five?” she sounded tired, which was normal considering it was 2am.

“ALLISON!” Five yelled into the cellphone and made her ear hurt “MY SISTA FROM ANOTHER MISTA!”

Allison frowned “Five, are you okay?”

Five burped straight into the phone and made Allison want to hang up, the kid continued with a high peach voice “Yes, I’m peachy Ally. You know why? Because I love you so much! I love you all! and I love life!”

Allison physically cringed “Five, how drunk are you?”

Five made Allison wait for a full minute, he hummed to the background song and giggled a little before getting the strength to talk again “How did you know I'm drunk”

“It’s pretty obvious”

“Are you spying on me?”

“Where are you? Are you with someone?”

“Are you a spy?”

“FIVE!” Allison was about to snap, this kid finally found yet another way to drive her crazy. “You have thirty seconds to send me your location or I’ll find you myself and kick your ass.”

Five swallowed hard and surprisingly did it pretty fast. “Done!” he asked innocently "Please don't be mad Ally".

Allison tried her best to not lose her cool, she was so going to kill him “I’m coming to pick you up. I’ll be there in ten minutes, I need you to get out of the house and wait in the driveway, okay? Stay safe.”

“Buzzkill” he simply said before hanging upright on her nose. He still did as he was told, not because he was scared of Allison but because he couldn’t get in trouble a second time in one week after telling his history teacher where he could put it.

After ten minutes, he got to the driveway with high difficulty and got in Allison’s Porshe heading to her mansion, where his real trouble was about to begin.

Five shut the front door behind him with a loud bang and made Allison glare “Five! Claire is sleeping!”

“ALRIGHT!” Five hissed and didn’t complain when Allison took his arm and dragged him to the kitchen.

“What did you drink, Five?” Allison asked seriously but the kid just smiled mischievously and stared at her.

Allison decided to ignore him and made him a smoothie mainly containing Gatorade. She had tried it many times with Klaus and Diego whenever they run away for the night and ended up hammered, they would use the miraculous drink to feel better for training and school the next day.

Five took a sip and gagged right away “EW”

Allison shushed him again and bit her lips, he was acting like a toddler “Shug it or you won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

Five hesitated but did end up shrugging it. However, things didn’t go as planned. Once the cup was empty, he turned green and made a disgusting sound in the back of his throat. He rapidly spaced jumped into the bathroom and kneeled in front of the toilet just in time to regurgitate everything in his stomach. “Oh no.”

Allison joined him shortly after and stood in the door frame, close enough to supervise and far enough to not be disgusted by the putrescent smell. She was looking at him with some pity, not knowing how to help, but also with some pride in herself “This is part of your grounding”

“Shut up” Five glared at her and didn’t say more because he felt another wave of nausea coming. “I’m fucking dying”

“Language”

“Go away!”

Allison smirked and started closing the door “Alright, good night then”

“NO!” The kid shouted at her with puppy god eyes “Stay, please, I take it back. Don’t leave me”

"Okay" Allison decided to stop playing with him and help him out, the kid was miserable. She walked towards him and helped him tie his hair up with her own pink scrunchie. Five had let it grow over the summer and he was now wearing man buns and combing it in e-boy cuts, giving his brothers material to mock him every day. Right now, however, he had his bangs covered in sweat and vomit. “I'll stay here, sweetie, don't worry”

He pucked continuously for another twenty minutes, groaning and whining in between. Allison flatted his back and tried to give him some air but it wasn’t making that much of a difference, she thought about all the times she left Klaus to deal with this stuff alone and was now feeling somewhat guilty. He was completely wasted, and

“Five, I think you should go to sleep now” After twenty-five minutes he wasn’t vomiting anymore, he was just sobbing into the bowl and complaining about how much everything hurt.  
“What if I vomit again?” He whispered in a childish tone.

“You won’t, let’s go”

“I can’t get up” it was true, his legs were like jello and his head was spinning.

Allison rolled her eyes, started to get tired of his bullshit “You don’t have a choice champ, come here”

Five wrapped his hand around his sister’s shoulder and she dragged him out of the bathroom, up the stairs, and into his bedroom. All those years of intense training at the academy were paying off, plus Five was just very small and underweight for a seventeen years old young man.

She helped him sit straight on his bed and looked for some pajamas, the old superhero ones that she had just cleaned early that afternoon, he was twelve when they bought it and yet somehow they still fitted. “Please cooperate Five, you can’t go to bed like that”

"I’m so tired” The half-asleep kid whined while his older sister patiently and carefully took off his jean jacket and disgusting t-shirt to put on clothing that didn’t reek vomit and alcohol.

She then got to the bottom part, the skinny jeans, and that's where things got complicated. As soon as she undid the zipper, she saw it, there it was. The one thing she had no business seeing. “OH MY GOD. NO, NO, NO. WHY ARE YOU GOING COMMANDO?”

She was hysterical, trying hard not to scream and wake up Luther or Claire, but also way too disgusted to stay calm. She had gone thirty-six years without seeing any of her brother's junks, and the most unexpected of them just ruined it. Five just shrugged and answered in a relaxed tone “I’m pretty sure I left the house with underwear on...”

Alison decided to ask no further questions, he owned a very big explanation tomorrow.

She found some clean boxer in his drawer and tossed him, he clumsily put them on and then slowly pulled his pajama pants up. “Done, can I sleep now”

“No, go brush our teeth first, you smell like a dead rat.”

“I wish I was a dead rat”

The mom in her was so mad at Five for being irresponsible, for keeping her awake so late, for mysteriously losing his underwear, for going out on a school night, etc. The big sister in her, however, was secretly proud to see her brother having fun, making friends, acting like a real teenager for once. Her thoughts got interrupted when Five spaced jumped behind their and let himself fall on his bed.

“Ally, I’m dying” he dramatically said, reminding her more and more of Klaus every second. That was not good.

“Good for you” She muttered before tugging him in like a little kid. He was quite adorable but she wasn’t going to admit it when she was this disappointed at him."I hope you'll learn your lesson. Sleep tight because we need to have a serious talk tomorrow."

Allison was about to go, she started getting up when she felt Five weakly grab her hand and pulled her back down. She looked down and saw him adorable cuddling himself, with his eyes already closed, and whispering softly “Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?”

She was about to say ‘no’ when it all hit her… ‘She was the one who dealt with Five’s first hangover. Not Diego who already took credit for everything fun in the kid's life, not Ben who introduced him to all the nerdy stuff he loved, not Vanya who he always went to when he needed to talk, not Klaus who he considered the most interesting one, not Luther who had basically become his wingman, no. Not any of them, it was her turn. 

The one who made his laundry for twelve years, who cleaned his dirty dishes, the one who made sure he showered every day, the one who called every day to make sure he ate and slept enough, the one who forced him to do his chores, the one who grounded him when he was being impolite, the one who tried to replace his never excising mother figure. It was her turn. “Yeah honey, I’ll stay”

His soft smile warmed her heart, bringing her back to when he was only six and called her name when he was scared of the monster under his bed “Thank you Allison”

The next five minutes went by pretty quickly, Allison held his hand and used her left one to play in his hair making him purr like a kitten. She only let go fifteen minutes later, when he started drooling and looked more ridiculous than cute “Good night Five, I love you”

“I love Ally” ah yes, sleep talking. She kissed his forehead and left him snorting and drooling. Oh boy, he was so getting grounded until Christmas.

**At the Funeral- August 21st, 2019**

Allison wasn’t feeling okay anymore. Not at all. She was done acting strong for her siblings because now she had one less sibling to be strong for. She couldn't believe she was never going to see him again. “I’m so sorry”

All one hundred and twenty people in the church were staring up at her with sympathy. She physically felt her walls fall down, she was miserable and couldn’t keep going.

She was about to break down, but a precious little angel saved her.

“Hello” Claire took the microphone and spoke confidently. Allison hadn’t even noticed when the little girl got up and walked right beside her, but she was thankful for her. “I want to say a couple of words for Five too”

Her little baby sweetly said and took the lead, saving her. She felt so proud of her courage and big heart, it was memorable in her daughter’s life.


	4. Claire & the snow globe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire's Eulogy; a cute Christmas story.

**August 1st, 2019**

Claire was standing in front of dozens of people, wearing a new plain black dress, thinking about what to say “Hello, my name is Claire Hargreeves.”

The place got a lot less tense after hearing the little girl’s lovely voice. She found the strength to smile and continued.

“I am Five’s niece, technically, but I hated when he called me that because he isn’t that much older than me. He’s more like a big brother to me; we play, we gossip, and we fight a lot.”

Talking about Five in the present tense made her uncles and aunt tear up.

Claire tried to ignore it and continued “Sometimes he thinks he’s babysitting me, but actually I’m the one babysitting him. I make him cookies and lemonade, I clean his room when he’s not home, and I tell him how to dress when he looks like a disaster." Klaus smiled up at her, he was responsible for taking Five shopping once per month and make sure he didn't end up looking like an emo maniac pr a colorful clown.

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone but, he does my homework and finishes my projects most weekends, in exchange for me to leave him alone for a couple of hours. He finishes them in under an hour and he always gets me the best grades. He's a genius!" it was true, Five had an amazing memory, he paid attention in class, he studied like crazy and he loved to read and feel informed. Five was a genius.

"You know, most boys in my class are gross, loud, idiotic, and they pick their noses, but Five is nothing like that. He's elegant, good with words, impressive, and he always wore cologne. Five is really pretty even of he won't admit it." she chuckled and made everyone smile dully. “What makes him the greatest boy on earth, and the best fake older brother, is his generosity, and how uch love he has for his family. Five would give up anything to help his family and friends, he has a huge heart.”

**December 25th, 2018**

“IT’S CHRISTMAS! IT’S CHRISTMAS! IT’S CHRISTMAS!” Five woke up to the familiar voice of Claire’s yapping. He refused to open his eyes for a couple of minutes until he felt two small hands shake him brutally “GET UP! GET UP! IT’S CHRISTMAS!”

A part of him wanted to push her off him, drag her outside the building, and lock her out for the day., but the Christmas spirit in him stopped him for doing so. Instead, he gave her a forced smile and stretched out while she continued yelling. “Good morning Claire”

“Let's go, I want to see what Santa brought us” She took his hand in hers and used all the strength in her little body to drag him out of the bedroom “Hurry up!”

Five was spending Christmas in Luther’s apartment, with Claire and Allison too. He didn’t have much of a choice since his other brothers were spending the holidays with their partner’s parents, and Vanya was on a tour with her orchestra for the entire month. So, Five was spending his winter break on a sleeping bag on the floor of his niece’s bedroom.

The four of them spent Christmas’ Eve messing around in the mall, playing in the snow and eating Chinese food while watching iconic holidays movies. The next day, Claire dragged Five to the living room where her mom and Luther were waiting for them by the Christmas thee “Good morning guys!”

“Hey” Five answered half still half sleeping with a raspy voice, using one hand to arrange his very messy long hair and the other to hold his Christmas pajama pants up because they were way too big on him. “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas sweetheart” Allison answered, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kiss his cheek. She then immediately got all soppy “Oh my god, last Christmas you weren’t even tall enough to reach my neck. When did you get so big?”

Five rolled his eyes but still smirked proudly. A year ago, at age sixteen, he was only 5’2 and the shortest boy in junior year. However, right before his seventeenth birthday, he finally got his awaited growth spurt and was now finally big enough for the man’s section at Walmart. “Soon I’ll be taller than Luther”

“Stop lying to yourself Five” He playfully replied, playing back the memory of four years old Five struggling to get on top of a simple chair. The kid used to dream of being as strong as his big brother Luther someday “Now go on, go open your gifts”

Claire was a hundred steps ahead, already unwrapping the biggest present, the one wrapped in glittery pink unicorn paper. “AHHHH!”

She screamed when she saw the inside of the box, the most beautiful dollhouse she had ever seen. It it had four floors, the exterior was completely pink, and every decoration looked vintage and authentic. The thing was almost as big as Five “OH MY GOD!”

Five stepped back while Claire screamed his ears off, Alison was taking pictures like crazy in the back and Lu. It was eight in the morning and his head already hurt because of his loud little niece “I swear to god Claire if you don’t stop screaming-”

Allison elbowed him hard making him groan and shut up.

He turned around ready to hit his sister back but he stopped when Claire called his name “Five, this is for you”

She was holding a little box wrapped in a clear blue paper. Five opened it slowly, trying to imagine what it could possibly be. All the attention was on him, specially Claire who had worked hard on that gift “Do you like it?”

Inside the box was a personalized snow globe featuring the newest family picture they had taken on their birthday. All seven siblings with matching with shirts, plus Claire, as Dave took the picture. The snow globe was decorated with all sorts of things that a nine year old kid could think of. Five would never admit that he was holding back tears “Of course! I love it, thank you so much”

That day, Five also received a couple of bracelets, chains, and a luxurious watch. When his other siblings came back, they gave him some money and clothes, but nothing would ever top that snow globe. It the best Christmas gift he had ever received, it was the most valuable thing in his bedroom and he would have a breakdown if it ever broke, he held it close to his heart.

The rest of the day consisted mainly of Five and Claire playing with the dollhouse, with pajamas all day and eating chocolate chip cookies. Life was sweet

Nobody could have guessed it, but that was Five’s last Christmas.

**August 25th, 2019**

When Five passed away, Claire helped her uncles, aunt and mom pack Five’s stuff. The only thing she kept from him was that Snowglobe, she wouldn’t ever trade it for anything in the damn world, she found the perfect place for it and she would always make sure it never got the slightest scratch.

Staring at that snowglobe before going to sleep was the only thing keeping her from breaking down, but it was all kicking in right now. Claire breathed heavily and wrapped it up neatly “I’m going to miss you, Five. Wherever you are, I hope you’re okay.”


	5. Klaus & Valentine’s

**At the Funeral- August 21st, 2019**

Claire and her mother step out of the stage side by side, holding hands to stay strong. That was Klaus' cue to take a deep breath, get up, and drag his feet up the stage to reach the microphone. “Hello, good afternoon, my name is Klaus Hargreeves”

Klaus had spent hours thinking about what to say to corroborate the best little brother anyone could ever ask for. He had only been gone for a week and Klaus was already losing his mind over the grieving, only thinking about how would he manage to leave without his baby brother.

"Five and I always had a fun relationship with Five. He brought out the best parts of me, he made me focus on the positive side of life, and I had my ways to make him laugh and loosen up too."

When they first met four-years-old Five, the child didn't smile for a full two weeks. It was scary, sad, and it made his older siblings feel like they were failing at their task of keeping him happy. All it took, was for him to be left alone with Klaus, and after an hour the kid was pissing himself from laughter.

Asthe years went by, Klaus came up with a thousand ways to make Five laughs, to see him have the childhood every kid deserves. When he first arrived, Klaus learned a bunch of songs and dances that he would practice with the toddler and they would laugh for hours. When Five was seven years old, Klaus bought a clown costume and used it to scare the shit out of Five, the footage afterward was always hilarious. The two of them would occasionally stay up after 3 am having a ‘joke tournament’ where they both tried to make each other laugh with awful puns. When Five was ten, he and Klaus had a three-month ‘prank war’ and it ended in messes, paint disasters, and a water ballons fight. For his fifteen birthday, Klaus rented a bouncy house and somehow Five loved it.

Seeing Five happy was partially what kept Klaus sane, calm, grounded and overall happy.

So, when Five passed away, Klaus felt like his own happiness was ripped away from him. He felt like the child in himself, the little innocence and youth he had left in him, died with Five. He felt like there was no way he could smile again knowing he wouldn’t see his little brother’s smile ever again.

“I never thought I would have to do this. You always expect the kid that you’ve seen grown up to die after you. AIn fact, considering my past I really thought I would die first in this family but I guess… life has different plans”

In the last week, ever since he found out about his baby brother's death, Klaus hadn’t made any jokes, no funny voices, no extravagant behavior, no singing, no drama, nothing. He had never been so serious, so quiet, so reserved, he had never felt so down.

Klaus continued with a very forced smile under his sad eyes “Five was my partner in crime, he would embark in all my crazy adventures and make them thousand times more interesting. That kid helped me chase a squirrel for three hours, we filled a bathtub with plastic balls once, for no reason, we binge-watch all four Sharknados in one day and laugh our asses off, we did all sorts of weird shit. I was a god awful example but he never minded, he was all in. That was Five, the most outgoing, unique, and extraordinary boy I've ever meet.” Klaus stopped to swallow hard, feeling like he was about to faint, looking more beaten down than he did the last time he got into rehab.

He looked at his feet and whispered "Why did you have to be such an idiot Five."

**February 10th, 2019**

Five would normally spend his Sundays with Luther, Allison, and Claire and after dinner, he would be dropped off at Vanya’s. However, this was not a normal Sunday, because this was the last Sunday before Valentine’s day. He needed to see Klaus ASAP.

There was a little noise followed by a flashy blue light Five spaced jumped into Klaus’ living room, the older man didn’t even flinch, after thirteen years he had gotten used to Five appearing out of nowhere, especially since the kid had already caught him doing things nobody should ever see. “Hello there, fella!”

“Klaus, I need your help.” Five said with a serious look on his face and a badly hidden worried facial expression. “It’s an emergency”

He watched his little brother walk towards him and make himself comfortable on the couch beside him, he opened his backpack to pull out a binder and some pencils. Klaus smiled to himself remembering how Five used to carry a notepad around everywhere and note simple things like a little businessman. “How can I help little man?”

Five ignored the nickname and went straight to the point “I have a problem, and I need your advice. You're the only one who could help me.”

Klaus’ eyebrows touched his hairline, Five hadn’t reached advice from Klaus in ten years, since he ruined the kid’s Solar system project. “Wow, I’m honored, I-”

There is no time to lose, Klaus” Five cut him, looking more stressed out every minute “It’s about Valentine’s Day”

Klaus tried his best not to scream, and failed “MY LITTLE BABY HAS A CRUSH!”

Five rolled his eyes and put his hands over his ears.

“I’VE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS! IT’S SO CUTE!” He started clapping his hands and jumping up and down with a big smile “THIS IS A VALENTINE’S MIRACLE! So when’s the wedding?”

“Oh lord, calm the heck down,” Five said trying his best to hide his smile.

Klaus sat down in front of his brother, ready to listen and help in any way he could “Alright, tell me what’s on your mind. How can I help you Fivey?”

Five bit his lips, breathed deeply and played with his hair, all are signs of stress. After a minute, he finally got the guts to let it out “There is indeed someone that I really want to ask out for Valentine’s, but I don’t know how to. I’ve never had a crush on anyone ever, but I’ve these feelings for five months and we’re good friends now, I really don’t want to mess it up.

“Awn, my Fivey is all grown up” Klaus looked proud and Five looed kinda desperate. The older man had watched a lot of romantic movies, but nothing could compare to listening to her baby brother’s first love “Before I say anything, tell me about this cutie”

Five opened his notebook to a specific page and passed it to Klaus slowly, it was a list; - Obsessed with superheroes - big fan of Star wars – not a fan of desserts, loves pizza and BBQ chips– Sports addict – allergic to most berries – not a night person – Loves camping – OLD MUSIC 

Klaus jaw was on the ground and his eyes were watering “Oh my god, Five… is this?”

“I just pay attention and note everything important after” the teenager mumbled fast and looked down, feeling embarrassed but he did not regret writing that list, it was extremely fun. “I know it’s a little creepy but-”

Klaus cut him with his smile even bigger than before “No, no! Five this is so adorable and thoughtful, this is the quality everyone would wish in a boyfriend! My little boy is such a gentleman”

Five’s pride wasn’t big enough to keep him from smiling at the thought of becoming someone’s boyfriend. “Anyways, any ideas? What do I do?”

“Ok here’s an idea” Klaus took out his phone and went to Pinterest, it only took ten seconds before he gasped and showed Five a picture, as if he was prepared for this “What about a picnic?”

“Lame” Five said in disappointment.

“Wait, listen! We can totally make it romantic and original” Klaus was really excited about this, he took Five’s hands in this and talk passionately “You can do it at night, so that the park is empty! And we can décor it with lights and set up the record player for some background music! I can help you make some snacks, and we can buy some flowers. What do you think?”

“That’s an amazing idea! Klaus why aren’t you this smart all the time!” Five looked stunned, his eyes were wide open and filled with amazement and he had no words “And how do I ask?”  


“Oh!” Klaus was on fire, he almost jumped from his chair of excitement “What if you don’t do it in person? You could do it over a simple letter, just write the time, the location, and sign it with a dorky catchphrase. You could just put it into the locker and boom!”

Five was smiling, he looked ready and happy, but still stressed out “You really think this will work?”

“Of course she will! This is perfect, it’s every girl’s dream date!” Klaus was laughing again, excited about finally feeling helpful.

Klaus stopped his little happy act when he heard Five gulp hard. Five was red, sweating, he looked down again an avoided looking into Klaus’s eyes. “Five? Honey are you okay?”

“Klaus, there’s something else I need to tell you”

“Yes?”

“I haven’t told this to anyone, and I thought you should know first… maybe you can help.” Five wasn’t going to say what he was thinking, but in reality he was way less scared of Klaus’ reaction out of all his six siblings”

“What’s going on Five?”

“… Klaus, I’m not talking about a girl”

“What?” Klaus knew what he meant, but he was to overwhelmed by emotion to say anything else.

“It’s a boy. His name is James, we met on the first day back to school, he was new in the city and I offered to give him a tour and help him feel welcome…” Five talked about this boy with stars in his eyes, he looked dreamy, slightly forgetting that Klaus was still in the room. “He’s the second-best in every class, after me of course, and he’s also in the football team. He’s caring, very sweet, and romantic. He’s super nerdy and funny, and the only interesting person in that entire school.”

Klaus didn’t really react, and that’s why Five decided to shut up and pull out his phone to show him some pictures of James. Klaus zoomed on the picture and stared at the boy’s handsome figure, his dark brown eyes, his dark red hair, and a very cute smile. “Well he’s quite the snack”

What Five did next was unthinkable, something incredibly unlike him, something Klaus thought he would never see: Five giggled like a middle schooler and blushed hard “He really is, he’s like prince charming.”

Klaus put the cellphone down and started crying. Eyes very red and puffy, filled with glassy happy tears, his voice cracked when he got up and opened his arms “My baby…”

Five was soon suffocated by Klaus hugging his upper torso with all his strength. Klaus, tears were full of pride and slowly wetting Five’s shoulder “Oh kiddo, I love you so much okay”

Five just nodded and accepted the hug, burying his head into Klaus’ chest and trying his best to not sob. He had never come out to anyone, and even if he knew Klaus of all people will accept him, it still took a lot of guts. “I love you too, thank you Klaus”

They pulled away from each other before it became too weird. Klaus broke the touching moment with a pinch on Five’s nose before saying “I’m so happy, my baby has amazing taste! You two would look great together” t

Five took a second to go serve a cup of hot tea for himself, freshly made coffee for Five and some cookies. After a couple of minutes, Klaus smiled and asked “Five?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you sure he’s into boys?” Klaus asked with big eyes, already worrying a little about at the thought of Five getting his heartbroken.

Five bit his lips and smiled “Well I wasn’t at first, that’s why I didn’t act on it sooner… until he kissed me at the game last Friday” he said calmly before sipping on his coffee with a grin.

“AHHH!” Klaus screamed the sound could be heard from outside the building “YOU SHOULD HAVE LEAD WITH THAT! THIS IS SO WHOLESOME! MY BABY’S FIRST KISS!

Five laughed, a genuinely, true, happy laugh that Klaus only heard a couple times per year, this boy was making his baby brother happier than ever.

Klaus yelled some more none-sense about romance, first loves, and popular love movies. Five just watched and laugh adorably and drank his coffee with a little more sugar than normal. They talked for some more minutes where Five gave more details about James, their relationship they had, and his feelings “Thank you for being so understanding Klaus”

“Are you kidding? Fivey, I was dreaming for another queer in this family! Three out of four, one more and we outnumber them, haha!” they laughed together and the child blushed some more.

“One last thing,” Klaus asked with a snickering smile and a mischievous look. “… are you… are you a bottom?”

Five turned red in under a second and shot him a glare, he didn’t say a word because he clung his fits and spaced jumped out of the apartment, leaving Klaus historically laughing. He knew the answer, but he would have never seen that coming from Five of all people.

Klaus ended up seeing Five again on the day before Valentine’s day, and helped Five set everything up and make the note, he gave his brother a hug and wished him good luck. Twenty-four hours later, Five popped in Klaus’s apartment again crying of happiness and yelling “I HAVE A BOYFRIEND, I HAVE A BOYFRIEND” and they both screamed like teenage girls for half an hour.

Six months later he was hugging said boyfriend as they both stood in front of a crime scene where Five died.

**At the Funeral- August 21st, 2019**

Klaus finished his speech with a soft smile “My brother was my inspiration, the person I admire the most. He made such a huge impact in my life and I never got a chance to tell him..."

Klaus heard a very loud sob and snapped his head up to look right in front of him, in the middle of the church alley, his little brother's ghost standing there shaking and crying like he had never cried before. Klaus just stood in shook, thinking about how much he needed one of Five's warm, tight hugs right now.


	6. Dave & movie night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave and Five bond over Marvel until Five gets heartbroken.

**At the Funeral- August 21st, 2019**

For the last week ever since his little brother-in-law passed away, Dave made it his job to take care of his husband's family. He would cook to make sure they ate, he would force them to sleep, he enormously helped with the funeral preparations, and he made himself available to give any family member a shoulder to cry in. Dave was their savior, it was the least he could do. 

It was painful to see the Hargreaves siblings go through their speeches, saying their final goodbyes to the little brother they each adored so much. Dave wasn't going to talk at the ceremony, because he felt like it wasn't his place, even though he loved Five like a brother.

Sitting there, listening to the love of his life expressing his heartbreak, Dave thought back about the day he met Five and the rest of the family: 

It was on Thanksgiving, three years ago, and it began as one of the most stressful experiences of his life because he knew how weird that family was and yet he wanted to make a good impression. Dave would have never guessed that Five was going to save his ass, he would've never made it through that night without Five. 

From the start of the night: Dave already had a bad feeling. His boyfriend's apartment was too small for ten people, Diego, his co-worker, was ignoring him, Allison was asking him inappropriate questions, Ben was throwing him long judgemental looks, and the rest of the family was silently awkward. After half an hour, Dave stepped to the balcony to take some air and have a break from the family, surprisingly there was a fourteen years old kid sitting there reading peacefully. "Oh hey little guy" 

"Do not ever call me that again" Five hissed and didn't look up from his book. He continued as he turned the page "Are you Klaus' boyfriend?"

Dave tried to seem approachable, he needed at least one Haargreeves on his side "Yes, I'm Dave, and you are?"

"Whatever, I don't care." Five said carelessly and closed the book dramatically loud. He made Dave jump and squeal when he teleported right in front of him and looked at him with a threatening look "Listen to me if you want to live"

“Euh ok-" Dave looked confused but not opposed. In the few minutes to come, he did not have the minor intention to stop Five from continuing his oversharing and very personal description of his family. Five turned Dave's attention to the window where they could see the living room and dining room where all his family waited for the meal to be served. He started his review pointing at Luther who was eating a bowl of chips by himself "Luther is the gawky one, so just skip formalities and all the small talk, go straight to talking about space and firefighting stuff." Then he pointed at Diego who was throwing a bawl and making it turn around Luther to annoy him "Diego is extremely protective of everyone so don’t make the ‘I’m fucking your brother’ situation any more awkward than it already is. Since you work with Diego, you better just talk about work, oh and he also likes martial arts, knives, and 80's movies." He pointed at Allison who was whispering insults at Parick (they were still married back then) "Allison is breezy when she'll get drunk fast, so wait until her fourth drink and start asking her about any of her movies. I advise you to google some info to come off as a fan and boost her confidence." He pointed at Five who was setting the table with too much precision "Ben is an English teacher, so if you remember any literature book from College it would come in handy right now. He also loves deep questions and he will talk for hours if you make him rethink his entire existence." He signaled his smallest sister who was helping Ben "Vanya is the easiest: she will probably stay quiet for most of it so if you see a window where nobody is talking, try to include her with something about music or boring theatre." Finally, he pointed at his niece who was making a mess with her toys in the middle of the living room "If you want extra points, try to make Claire talk about ponies, they will all fall head over heels for you and you want Claire on your side, believe me." To end it nicely, a creepy smiled popped on Five's face when he hurried to finish "If you want to make jokes just make them simple and fast because they get exquisitely dumb. Oh, and if you feel my kicking you under the table, shut up and let me handle it. The last thing, please, please, please, do us all a favor and keep Klaus from saying anything slightly sexual, or else they will lose all respect for you. Got it?”

Dave just nodded and gave the kid a quick ‘thanks’, he was certainly confused and surprised, until he realized just how well everything works. During the meal, he made everyone laugh at least once, he got to connect with each sibling, and he even got a doggy bad, handshakes from everyone, and a big hug from little Claire. They all loved Dave and congratulated Klaus over and over again for the following week. Dave owned Five big times for the rest of his life…unfortunately he only got 3 years to make it up to him.

**April 26th, 2019**

Five was secretly a huge fan of superheroes. He had posters of ‘Batman’ in his room since 2012, he had a collection of toys of the X-men since fifth grade, he had a pile of comics under his bed that he was proud of, and he had all of the ‘MCU’ movies on DVD in his closet. Five loved superheroes, and knowing he could have been part of that world only made him love them more.

If there was one thing he had in common with Dave, it was their passion for science-fiction. Dave was a huge fan of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ when he was little, so dating Klaus was like dating his childhood idol.

Whenever the two were left alone for over half a minute, their topics will be completely centered around superheroes, it was ridiculously nerdy. They shared theories, argued on which would win in a fight, and reviewed movies like children, it was adorable in Klaus’ eyes.

Because of all of that, it was no surprise to Dave when Five spaced jumped into his apartment at noon with his precious Marvel DVDs on the weekend before ‘Avengers: Endgame’ came out. Dave jumped and cursed under his breath, making the kid laugh “Damit Five!”

Five got serious fast, pointed his finger straight at Dave’s face, and said “Dave, are you busy today?”

Dave stopped to think even if the answer was obvious, it was a cold rainy day, his boyfriend was in another city attending an important art gallery event, and his friends were all busy. “Nope, nothing, why?”

“Good,” Five said before kneeling to open the box of DVDs and show it to Dave “because today, Dave, we have an important mission.”

Dave raised his eyebrows and threw a confused look “We do?”

“Of course we do!” He raised his arms dramatically and smiled like a child on Christmas Eve “We have seven days to re-watch twenty-three Marvel movies. WE START RIGHT NOW.”

“Sure, okay-” Dave looked started but not opposed “and what’s the plan?”

Five took out a list from his backpack showing the name and length of each movie “I was thinking we could watch all of the phase one's today, we could watch phase two tomorrow, and if we watch three movies per day we’ll finish phase three before the pre-premiere.”

Dave almost choked on his glass of milk “Wait- we’re going to the pre-premiere?”

Five smirked and reached into his backpack again to pull out to tickets marked ‘Avengers: Endgame, pre-premiere, Thursday 25th at 9:00'. He passed one to Dave and yelled in his most high pitched voice “YES WE ARE MATE”

“HOW DID YOU GET THAT?”

Five admired the ticket in his hand while he explained “Claire broke stole money from Allison when she got caught she blamed it on me, so Allison screamed at me, grounded me, and took my allowance. When she found out I wasn’t guilty, she felt super bad and talked to one of her actor friends to get us these tickets. LIFE IS AWESOME!”

Five looked like the happiest teenager on Earth, he sat on the couch and got himself comfortable to start the movie marathon. Dave just high fived him and smiled back “Alright then, let’s go!

They sat side by side and looked all excited when he title came on, this was going to be way too fun.

In the middle of the first movie, ‘Iron Man’, Dave stopped to make some popcorn and prepare healthy snacks.

After finishing ‘Thor’, Five spaced jumped to another apartment and came back with three bags of chips. Dave didn't stop him because he wanted to keep his 'cool uncle' standard.

At the beginning of ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, around 7:00 pm, Dave got up to change into some more comfortable clothes and brought Five his biggest, warmest cover.

It wasn’t until halfway through the last movie, the first ‘Avengers’ movie, that Dave had to step out of the living room to answer his ringing phone.

He looked at it and smiled when he saw his boyfriend’s name popped up, he picked it up right away “Hi sweetie, how are you?”

“Dave! We need your help” On the other side of the line, Klaus screamed in his ear with a voice full of anguish.

“What? Who’s ‘we’? What’s going on?” Dave’s heart suddenly went faster and his face turned red.

“Dave, we don’t know where Five is. He ran away from Allison and Luther’s place this morning with no note or anything, he hasn’t returned in like ten hours! He’s not with any of the others, and his boyfriend hasn’t heard from him either. I’ve been calling him over and over for an hour, I know and I can’t track his phone so it must be off. He hasn’t used his debit card today, his car is gone, and the-”

“Honey, wait, calm down.” Dave cut her off as sweetly as he could, using a soft and caring voice “You can breathe now, please calm down, I know where Five is.

“WHAT? WHERE? IS HE OKAY?” Klaus sounded like he was on the verge of breaking down, he was terrified.

“He’s perfectly okay honey, don’t worry” Dave quietly said while eyeing Five in the living room “He’s been with me for like ten hours, we’ve been watching movies all day. I’m so sorry, I had no idea you guys were looking for him.”

“Oh thank god, because I was about to fly back there to look for his scrawny ass.” Klaus hadn’t sound that mad in months, he could physically feel a heavyweight being lifted off his back, his breathing slowly went back to normal as the lump in his throat disappeared “I’ll go tell the others, they’ll be on their way.”

The phone hanged up and Dave simply went back to sit on the couch where Five was pretending like he did not just eavesdrop the entire conversation. “Five.”

“Hm?”

“Did you tell any of your siblings that you were spending the weekend here?”

The silence spoke for himself, Five ignored the questions for a couple of seconds and played with his fingers “No, I didn’t”

“So you just ran away?”

“Yeah.”

Dave nodded understandably and moved slightly closer to the boy "My I ask why you did that?”

Five just shrugged and ignored Dave, trying to keep his attention on the last movie of the day.

Dave wasn't sure if he should keep talking or to. On one side, he thought it wasn't his place to talk in Five's personal issues, on the other side he wondered if Five needed an impartial family member who couldn't ground him or criticize him. He chose to continue “Running away doesn’t sound like you, kiddo. What happened? Do you want to talk?”

Dave was right, it definetly didn’t sound like Five to run away from anything. The kid was a pain in the ass sometimes, he could be arrogant and disrespectful, but he would never do anything to cause harm our worry to his family. He loved them too much.

“… Well, there’s another reason why Allison got me those movie tickets.” Five nodded deeply and brought his legs up the couch to hide his face behind his knees “Yesterday was my ‘Adoption Anniversary’”

"What is that?" Dave briefly knew what that was about, after all, he had been hanging out with this family for over three years.

Five continued with his thumb in his mouth sounding like a toddler “Yesterday marked thirteen since my siblings adopted me and became my legal six guardians. It was the single most important day of my life.”

Dave was finally understanding where this conversation was going, so he mentally prepared himself to get sentimental “That day is more meaningful to me than our birthday, it's my own special day, it's the day where I get to feel like more than a poor unwanted orphan.”

By now Five had tears formed in his eyes but he was doing an okay job at hiding them behind his knees, Dave swallowed and tried to seem strong for the boy sitting beside him, even if inside his sensitive self was crying a river.

Dave held his hand up to reach Five’s smaller, colder one and showed nothing but empathy hen the kid continued with a shaky voice “They forgot. All six of them forgot about my ‘Adoption Anniversary’ yesterday.”

“Oh, Fivey” Dave opened his arms and leaned in to hug him tightly. Five surprisingly didn't pull away and instead buried his face in Dave’s neck to cry quietly. “I'm sorry, Five. I know it must be hard, they just have a lot on their plate right now. You know they all love you so much, right?" 

Five didn't answer, he didn't even move for a couple of seconds, he just muttered: “I’m just a burden to them, they got stuck with me.”

Dave wasn’t sure how to approach this, he didn’t even know what words to use, he had never seen Five so vulnerable “Five, you know very well that is not true. Your family loves you, and they're proud of you, they want the best for you. You should never have to feel 'unwanted', all six of them would do anything for you!”

Five sobbed and cleaned his nose before answering “That’s the problem! I'm taking too much space in their lives, I'm holding them back. If I weren’t here, their lives would be so much more interesting and fulfilled. They would be homeowners, married, with kids, and traveling the words right now. I'm a burden, they would be better without me!”

“Buddy, what are you even talking about?” Dave pulled away from Five to wipe his tears and give him a serious look “You’re the glue to this family! You’re the reason they aren’t totally dysfunctional, you’re the reason they're sticking together, that's incredible. You've lightened up their lives during hard times, you kept them going, you gave them hope and motivation. Five, you're an amazing little brother and they couldn’t live without you. You know all that!”

“You think so?” Five asked with the quiet, shaky voice of an innocent, sad kid. 

“I know so. They adore you, Five.” Dave said confidently, and he was not lying. The only reason he didn’t add more was that he wasn’t sure the kid could handle it in the weak mind space he was in at that moment. Instead, Dve smiled and tried to cheer Five up “Although, if you’re that worried about your sibling’s futures, maybe I can help you.”

Five’s eyes finally looked up, he stared at Dave who rapidly walked to his bedroom and came out hiding something behind his back. “What is that?”

“Well, I haven’t told anyone yet but I’ve been hiding this for a month. This seems like the right time to tell someone.” Dave said looking very nervous as he breathed deeply. The mad revealed the little black box that he was hiding, and inside of it was a shiny, expensive engagement ring with a beautiful enormous bleu diamond on it.

Dave got exactly what he wanted because Five stopped crying. The kid got up from under the cover and his eyes glowed with awe “Really? Oh my god, I can’t believe this-"

Five grinned adorably, trying really hard to hold back all his excitement. Dave smiled back and blushed “Yeah, I love Klaus so much, I want to spend the rest of my life with him. 

Five took the ring from Dave's hands and admired it happily, imagining his brother's priceless reaction and the extravagant wedding he would organize.

Dave cleared his throat awkwardly and embraced himself from his next line “Before I asked Klaus, I wanted to ask you and your siblings if you’re alright with us getting engaged.”

Five instantly let out a loud, cute short. Out of respect, he tried his best to not laugh “So you’re basically asking me for my brother’s hand in matrimony? Damn Dave, you're such an old man.”

Dave glared "Shut up" 

Five laughed a little louder "You have the green light, please marry Klaus and maybe he will become less annoying." 

Dave smiled, and they hugged again to seal the moment. It was all calm and peachy for around ten minutes until the door swung open and his six siblings stepped inside. 

"Hi" Five greeted looking up at them, expecting to get screamed at and grounded. He thought they would be mad, ready to lash out at him with overlapping arguments. 

Instead, his older brothers and sister just smiled and gave him warm apologetic expressions, they seemed genuinely sorry."Hi" 

The night went by fast, it was fun and carefree. The seven siblings made themselves comfortable in Dave’s apartment where they ate pizza and oreo ice scream, they talked for hours and gave Five some gifts like the normally did on his adoption anniversary. He got the usual simple presents of every year: gift cards from Starbucks, laser tag, movies, Chipotle, etc. Nobody mentioned Five running away, and Five didn't mention his discussion with Dave just earlier, but it seemed ok for the night.

Around two am, Five passed out from tiredness and Luther carried him into the car slowly and carefully. The next of the week, Five spent his afternoons watching MCU movies at Dave,s apartment, and at the end of the week they both cried during all of 'Avengers: Endgame'. It was amazing. 

Needless to say, the Hargreeves never forgot Five's 'adoption anniversary' ever again.

**At the Funeral- August 21st, 2019**

He needed to be strong for Klaus and the rest of his in-laws, he was their moral support. This is why he was trying so hard to hold his tears because if he stars crying now he will cry the rest of the day. Five was the greatest brother in law I could have ever asked for, Dave was going to miss him endlessly.

Dave starting remembering other impactful memories he shared with Five: like when they got lost hiking in the woods, or when they went fishing and caught no fish, or when they burned the cheesecake they were making for Klaus, and so on.

Ok, Dave was cying now.


End file.
